Mendilibar’s reborn Sevilla are looking for a seventh Europa League against Mourinho’s Roma

The paths of José Luis Mendilibar and José Mourinho on the bench were very different. The Biscay and the Portuguese, hard-working footballers, both far from the elite on the pitch, took completely different paths when they swapped boots for boards.

Always down-to-earth, a champion of normality so willing to put on his tracksuit and rebuke his lifestyle to lead humble groups to a permanence celebrated more than any title. The other is as admired as he is hated, a histrionic, impeccably suited and sharp-tongued, trophy collector and regular media focus.

Two decades ago, between 2002 and 2004, as Mourinho began to fill his Porto display case with the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, Mendilibar made lowly Lanzarote dream of promotion to the second division. The designs of football are unfathomable and today Zaldibar aspires to be crowned in Europe against a man who did it almost as a routine.

Only the fearless, hardened in a thousand battles to avoid being burned, could face the challenge of restarting Sevilla, who were wandering aimlessly in the League, under the threat of unimaginable relegation. When the Basque settled at Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán at the end of March, true to his style, the Europa League was experienced in Nervión as a distraction and an unnecessary omission considering the delicate situation in the domestic championship.

Barely two months later, the king of the second continental echelon reigned again in the competition that he had dominated with an iron fist for the last two decades. As well as correcting his course in the League to settle in the noble zone of the table, his natural place for potential, he tormented his European journey with famous victims – PSV, Fenerbahçe, Manchester United and Juventus – until he arrived in Budapest, where he already played the European Super Cup against Bayern in 2020 and where it now aims to lift the seventh Europa League in its history.

Mendilibar managed to rehabilitate a good team that at times seemed like a caricature according to Sampaoli’s baroque style book. Showing the normalcy that has always characterized him, he deserved a chance at a club with great sporting aspirations that he had lacked in his coaching career so far, created by hard work and in many cases a little grateful.

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The European title would be the perfect icing on the cake in a few months that more than justifies this continuity which is still questionable, but after eliminating two European giants like United and Juventus, the last obstacle to glory also has a famous name. Mourinho’s Roma does not have the brilliance of the ‘red devils’ and ‘vecchia signora’, but is a purely original team, specifically one that only knows how to win the final in Europe.

Two Champions Leagues (2004 and 2010), two Europa League titles (2003 and 2017) and one Conference League (2022) adorn the great record of the coach of Setúbal, who will measure his undefeated title against Sevilla. Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord and Bayer Leverkusen can well describe the granite character of Roma, who conceded three goals in eight games in the KO phase of the tournament.

Through an untouchable scheme of three central defenders -Mancini, Smalling and Ibáñez- and long wings -Zalewski and Spinazzola-, the ‘Giallorosso’ team mercilessly defends its goal and entrusts its few but penetrating offensive performances to the physical presence of Abraham and Dybala’s talent, a jewel in which a doubt due to his physical problems in the days before the final, but finally available to Mourinho.

For his part, Mendilibar regrets losing Acuña to suspension and will turn to Telles on the left. The rest of the eleven selected for glory points to a gala line-up, with Bryan Gil and Lamela in doubt to complete the offensive trident in which En-Nesyri and Ocampos look fixed in front of the engine room where Fernando, Rakitic and Oliver Torres manage.

Probable lineups:

Sevilla: Bono, Navas, Gudelj, Badé, Telles, Fernando, Rakitić, Oliver Torres, Ocampos, En-Nesyri and Bryan Gil.

Roma: Rui Patricio, Mancini, Smalling, Ibáñez, Zalewski, Cristante, Matic, Pellegrini, Spinazzola, Dybala and Abraham.

Referee: Anthony Taylor (England).

Stadium: Puskas Arena (Budapest).